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Toddler with rare birth defect goes home after 650-day stay at hospital

Toddler with rare birth defect goes home after 650-day stay at hospital

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Updated: 10:21 AM EDT Aug 30, 2017

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WEBVTT ROB: KETV NEWSWATCH 7'S TAYLORBARTH SHARES NAOMI'S JOURNErtY.>> SHE'S AMAZING.SHE'S TAUGHT ME LIKE WHAT ITMEANS TO BE BRAVE.TAYLOR:rt NAOMI HAWKS IS JUST SOF TWO YEARS OLD, BUT HERPERSONALITY IS ANYTHING BUTTHAT.>> OH YEAH.OH YEAH.rtTAYLOR: FOR THE 651 DAYS SHE'SBEEN ALIVE THIS HOSPITAL ROOM, HAS BEEN NAOMI'S LIFE.>> THE DOCTORS DIDN'T EXPECT HERTO LIVE TO BE ONE.rtTAYLOR: NAOMI AND HER TWIN,HANNAH, WERE BORN PREMATURE.BUT NAOMI'S BATTLE WOULD BE MUCHBIGGER TrtHAN HER SISTERS.BORN WITH AN ABDOMINAL DEFECTCALLED AN OMPHALOCELE.>>rt SHE REALLY HAS TWO MAJORPROBLEMS.ONE, HER INTESTINES ARE OUTSIDETHE BODY AND THE SECOND IS THAT, HER LUNGS ARE TOO SMALL.TAYLOR: THE EXTREMELY RARErtCONDITION REQUIRES NAOMI TOBREATH THROUGH A TRACH ANDTHEN I LATER.>> -- AND A VENTILATOR.>>rt MULTIPLE OCCASSIONS SHE HASBEEN ON DEATH'S DOOR LITERALLYAND YET SHE PULLS THROUGH IT.,TAYLOR: SMALL BUTrt MIGHTY WITH A, STRONG SUPPORT SYSTEM BEHINDHER.VINCE AND MADY HAWKS VISITINGHER EVERY SINGLE DAY.>> THIS IS OUR NORMAL SO WEDON'T KNOW ANYTHING ELSE.TAYLOR: TUESDAY, THEIR LITTLEGIRLrt FINALLY LEAVES THEHOSPITAL.>> IT KIND OF HASN'T SUNK INYET.TAYLOR: AFTER 650 DAYS NAOMI, TOOK HER VICTORY LAP THRrtOUGHTHE HALLS OF CHILDREN'S.>> HER LIFE IS ALREADY A LEGACYrtI THINK.

Toddler with rare birth defect goes home after 650-day stay at hospital

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Naomi is just shy of 2 years old, but her personality is anything but that.

For the 651 days she's been alive, a hospital room has been Naomi's life.

"The doctors didn't expect her to live to be 1," Mandy Hawks said.

Naomi and her twin, Hannah, were born prematurely, but Naomi's battle would be much bigger than her sister's. She was born with an abdominal defect called an omphalocele.

"She really has two major problems," said Dr. Andrew Macfadyen at Children's. "One, her intestines are outside the body and the second is that her lungs are too small."

The extremely rare condition requires Naomi to breathe through a trach and ventilator.

"Multiple occasions she has been on death's door literally and yet she pulls through it," Macfadyen said.

Naomi is small, but mighty, with a strong support system behind her. Her parents, Vince and Mandy Hawks, visiting her every single day.

The family adjusted their lifestyle to make it work. Sharing one car, Mandy would drive Vince to work and then head to Children's with Hannah.

"We come up here and I usually do Naomi's dressing on her omphalocele in the morning, get her dressed, get her teeth brushed, hair brushed and then the girls play and I hang out," Mandy Hawks said.

Then Mandy and Hannah would go pick up Vince from work, only for one of them to return to put Naomi to bed at night.

"This is our normal, so we don't know anything else," Mandy Hawks said. "We became parents because we wanted to be parents and take care of our kids. We figured out how to do it, even in the hospital."

Their little girl finally left the hospital on Tuesday.

"It kind of hasn't sunk in yet," Mandy Hawks said.

After 650 days, Naomi took her victory lap through the halls of Children's.

"She's got a testimony that is just going to blow people away," Mandy Hawks said. "Her life is already a legacy, I think."

"For them to be rewarded by having both their kids under the same roof tonight is very heartwarming," Macfadyen said.

Naomi's hospital visits are far from over. She still needs complete support from a ventilator and her lungs need to develop more before doctors can consider performing a surgery to reverse her omphalocele.

Mandy Hawks said doctors may start looking at that possibility when Naomi is 3. It could take years for them to complete the process.

"(She has) definitely a bright future and we're just going to keep continuing to do what needs to be done to keep her healthy and get her stronger," Mandy Hawks said.

Naomi's stay at Children's is one of the longest in the hospital's history.